Bathymetry Plate Tectonics

Oceanography also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean. It covers a wide range of topics, including marine organisms and ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor; and fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers blend to further knowledge of the world ocean and understanding of processes within it: biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics as well as geography.

The theory of plate tectonics states that Earth’s outer shell is divided into plates. The crust and upper mantle is broken into plates that move around on the mantle, changing in size throughout time. The lithosphere makes up the crust and upper mantle and the asthenosphere a plastic like layer beneath the lithosphere. There are three types of plate boundaries. Divergent boundaries where two plates move away from each other. The ocean widens and new crust forms at the mid-oceanic ridge. Convergent boundaries has three types of converging, moving two plates towards each other. First we have an ocean floor plate that collides with a less dense continental plate. Next an ocean floor plate collides with another ocean floor plate. Finally a continental plate collides with another continental plate. Transform boundaries were two plates slide past one another. The resulting effects of plate tectonics is landforms such as rift valleys,

Astonishingly, Did you know that we have better maps of the moon than we do of the ocean? (#7) It’s true! Scientists are working to make drones to explore the deep sea. Ocean Exploration is a developing science that incorporates the use of marine biology and drone technology. Ocean Exploration technology will be an overall benefit to society because 1. exploring the ocean is easier than before and 2. ocean exploration can help with monitoring the deep sea.

The sea is often perceived as a whole other world that science sometimes struggle to explain, its depths

The Ocean is 70 percent of the earth surface, humans have explored less than five percent of the ocean, and is home to innumerable amount of living organisms. One of its oldest inhabitants is the Cheloniidae dates back to the Triassic era, roughly 250 million years ago, (Wang et al.,

Presented in an informal style of writing, “What Is Ocean Exploration and Why Is It Important?” inform its readers about the importance of researching and discovering the unknown ocean. It explains how much work is needed for the documentation of the ocean in varies areas, at the same time it addresses that scientist will be able to better understand the unknown oceans. For example, the time needed to obtain and study the result, as well as answer how the change in atmosphere will cause the ocean to react and affect life. The information obtain will also provide the baseline for scientist, researcher and government agencies to make important and dangerous decisions for the future. Sometime during research amazing things happen and new resources may be revealed. Besides informing about the ocean researching, the article also has a background idea as it is trying to encourage and get its readers interested into joining the field of ocean researching by emphasizing the role the ocean plays and how it will help ensure that ocean resources are well managed for future generations to enjoy.

In this episode of the BBC documentary series, “The Blue Planet: Open Ocean,” we were able to explore the abundance and complications of the open ocean, the pelagic zone. Over 60% of our planet is covered by the ocean, yet the deep sea is largely still unknown. We know more about the moon than what we know about the deep ocean. The temperature and the level of sunlight decrease as the depth increases. The ocean may appear uniform from the surface, but there is several layers to the ocean. The pelagic zone contains the most area of the open ocean. The zone includes everything except for the coastal waters and the sea floor. However, even within this area, there are variation since some part is lifeless with very little amount of organisms and

As more and more of the seafloor was mapped during the 1950s, the magnetic variations turned out not to be random or isolated occurrences, but instead revealed recognizable patterns. When these magnetic patterns were mapped over a wide region, the ocean floor showed a zebra-like pattern. Alternating stripes of magnetically different rock were laid out in rows on either side of the mid-ocean ridge: one stripe with normal polarity and the adjoining stripe with reversed polarity. The overall pattern, defined by these alternating bands of normally and reversely polarized rock, became known as magnetic striping.

The off-shore marine environment changes intensively with the change in the ocean depth. There are three distinctive zones that can be classified along the depth which is the Epipelagic which extends from the sea surface to a depth of 200 meters, the mesopelagic which extends from a depth of 200 meters to a depth of a 1000 meters and then the Deep sea which extends from a depth of a 1000 meters to the sea floor (Castro & Huber, 2010). The Deep sea can then be divided into a further three zones (Figure 01) Bathypelagic which extends from a depth of a 1000 meters to 4000 meters, Abyssopelagic which extends from a depth of 4000 meters to 6000 meters and then the Hadopelagic which extends which extends from a depth of 6000 meters to the sea floor (Castro & Huber, 2010).

In order to determine how the oceans have changed over time and to identify what might have

Tectonic plates never stop moving and continue to change the surface of the earth in present day. The movement of tectonic plates is the main reason for the formation of the Panama Isthmus with an arc of islands that eventually connected to create a link between North and South America. With the Panama Isthmus came many changes to the world. Animals were introduced to new areas. Fossil records help scientists understand what animals made their way across the land bridge into both Americas. The closing of the link between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans altered the environment and climate of the world. The world today would be very different if the isthmus had not formed; with tectonic plates in constant motion, the world will continue to change and be completely different in the future than it is today.

The plate tectonics theory is the theory that the outer rigid layer of the earth is divided into several plates that move around across the earth's surface. There are many topics that support this theory, but I think that continental drift and seismic activity help support it the best. Theories can change over time because people get new understandings of things as time goes by, new knowledge is gained with new technology, and new discoveries can be made.

The ocean it covers over 70 percent of the earth’s surface and more than 500 million people go to its surface during the summer yet we have not seen 95 percent of the surface in detail. This is where oceaogahers come into play. An oceanographer is someone who studies the ocean whether it is to find a pocket of oil deep in the ocean or to find new species of fish deep down in the sea or the migratory patterns of fish for fishermen to be able to catch that type of fish all year.

Submarine volcanoes, mid-ocean ridges, and submarine canyons are all grouped into the marine geology systems. Underwater structures can actually be pretty useful to marine geologists, in 1930 studies found the seafloor to have all of the same physical features on land like mountains, volcanoes, canyons and more. The seafloor is estimated to be less than 2,000,000 year old, being a lot younger than landforms. The ‘age’ difference of the two makes marine geologists’ work a lot more fun to compare in finding the way rocks are built, how the sediments are compatible and finding an estimated location of natural disasters underwater.

For many years humans have struggled to discover the deepest parts of the ocean and have also struggled with discovering space. We could not go really deep into the ocean, because humans can not withstand the pressure that the ocean produces. But now there is a robot that can reach the ocean floor called “The Benthic Rover”. With that new robot, scientist will be able to record how changes on the surface of the ocean will impact the marine animals below. “What is special about the rover is that we will be able to stay in the deep parts of the ocean for a really long time collecting seasonal changes data” (Engineer Alana Sherman). With Benthic Rover,